Clear Money Guide
What this guide covers
A quick view of the questions and evidence developed below.
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Updated July 28, 2026. Quick answer: Five years or until age 59½, whichever is longer. Start at 50 and you are committed for nearly ten years. Start at 57 and you are committed until 62 — past 59½, because five years had not yet elapsed.
The rule catches people at both ends
| Start age | Schedule must run until | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 50 | 59½ | Age condition binds — nearly 10 years |
| 54 | 59½ | Age condition binds |
| 57 | 62 | Five-year condition binds — past 59½ |
Starting a schedule in your late fifties is usually a mistake for exactly this reason: you commit past the age at which the penalty would have stopped applying anyway. If you are 57 and can bridge two and a half years another way, do that instead.
When it actually ends
The final payment date is a precise calculation, not an approximation, and stopping early — even by one payment — is a modification with retroactive consequences. Get the end date in writing at the start and diarise it.
After it ends
The account reverts to an ordinary IRA. Withdraw what you like, when you like, subject only to income tax.
Get a second opinion before you lock in a schedule
An early-withdrawal schedule commits you for years and is expensive to break, so it is worth having someone check the amount, the account it runs on and the alternatives against the rest of your plan first.
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Sources
IRC §72(t) (10% additional tax and its exceptions); IRC §72(t)(2)(A)(iv) (substantially equal periodic payments); IRC §72(t)(2)(A)(v) (separation from service at 55); Rev. Rul. 2002-62; Notice 2022-6. Cross-checked July 2026 against professional analyses. Interest rates published for these calculations change monthly and are described structurally here rather than quoted.
This states what the cited authority says. It is not tax advice, and a SEPP schedule is unusually unforgiving of small errors.
Related
What the series would actually pay: the SEPP calculator gives the fixed-amortization and RMD-method payments from the regulation’s own life expectancy table, tells you which leg of the lock-in binds for your age, and prices what breaking it would cost — retroactively, across every payment.